The unseen epidemic sweeping Australia and taking mostly men

Twenty five years ago this month one of my best friends took his own life. It haunts me to this day. I had been scheduled to catch up with him, but got no answer. In desperation, I phoned his mother who told me he had killed himself the week before.

In fact, three of my friends have died this way. It is symptomatic of a great, unseen epidemic sweeping our nation today.

In 2015, 3027 people took their own lives. 2291 of them were men. More than six men take their lives each day, so why don't we care? As this is Men's Health Week, it's time we really did give a damn.

To put things into perspective, among the 20 biggest killers in Australia, suicide is the leading cause of Years of Potential Life Lost. That is because the age at which a person is most likely to die at their own hands is 44.5, but the age at which a person is most likely to die of heart disease is 85.

Suicide claims almost three times more lives than road accidents, and over 30 times more lives than domestic violence. So where is the public outrage? Where is the government funding? The indifference of State and Commonwealth officials to these deaths is a national disgrace.

The easiest thing we can do is to begin a discussion about the futility of suicide.

Addressing a conference on the Gold Coast over the weekend, well known psychiatrist Dr Tanveer Ahmed said: "Every man who (kills himself) will have a plan for life.

"Our challenge is to expose that plan for life and make it accessible."

We can only do that if we are individually and collectively willing to discuss the subject. We need to help men believe life is worth living. Those of us in the media need to have special courage and sensibility in this regard.

We also have a responsibility to question why it is that men are three times more likely to commit suicide than women.

Either men are less resilient than we think they are, or the way society is treating them is overcoming what resilience they have. Given the incidence of male suicide is increasing, it suggests the problem is something in society.

Men are more likely to be lonely, homeless, imprisoned, and to suicide. Anything that contributes to this, or which stops men getting help, must be reformed or swept aside.

Dr Ahmed believes the problem partly lies in the manifestly unequal way in which men are treated in the most important aspects of their lives. Foremost is the way they are treated by the Family Court.

"Men have shrinking leisure time, are increasingly separated from their networks, and then they get divorced and have a custody battle. Suicide becomes a solution to the problem," he says.

"Amongst men in their forties and fifties, there is a very good chance that a man who attempts suicide is involved in some sort of custody dispute."

There can be no justification for this at all. The moral insouciance of governments and courts as to the plight of fathers should be seen as a national moral failing which dwarfs even the Stolen Generation experience.

Finally, we must also treat men's health, and men's lives as valuable issues. We must press for equal funding for research into men's health. We must also insist on equal funding for the treatment of men's health. This would at least be a start to tackling the problem.

My three friends who took their lives had names: Chris, Peter and Andy. This article is for them.

Suicide rates among men in Australia are shockingly high.

Photo: Virginia Star

For anyone in need of help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue Support Service 1300 224 636